The Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing Cars team pulled together and overcame significant mechanical challenges to field an excellent race car for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class qualifying session today, securing a top five position in Saturday’s Rolex 24 at Daytona starting field.

Arriving at Daytona with a streamlined configuration from the bulkhead back and a new six-speed gearbox, the team dealt with teething issues that kept the revolutionary coupe off the track for the bulk of the two practice sessions Thursday. The crew worked hard to sort through the issues and get the car to pit lane in time for qualifying. The car that Andy Meyrick took to the track was more than up to the task, pacing within half a second of the leaders and qualifying fifth with a time of 1:39.625. The qualifying laps were Meyrick’s first full laps at Daytona since the Rolex 24 almost a year ago.

The team now turns its attention to the two-hour night practice session, where Meyrick, Katherine Legge, Gabby Chaves and Memo Rojas will each get laps under the lights. The Rolex 24 at Daytona – the first race of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup – takes the green flag at 2:10 pm ET on Saturday, January 24, 2015. The television package will be split among the three FOX channels, with the start of the race on the primary FOX network. The evening and Sunday coverage will be divided between FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 (see local listings).

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Andy Meyrick
“The team must have a little faith in me! I haven’t driven here since last year, since I missed The Roar. For the team to make qualifying and be only a few tenths off is great. It was an amazing job by the entire crew, to get the car into the pit lane to start the session. Hopefully P5 is a little bit of a reward for their hard efforts! We’ll start the race in a strong position. We have a few things to work on but the gearbox is good, the engine is good. With a few tweaks, we’ll have a really good race car.”

Tim Keene
“It’s unfortunate we had the problems but we never give up. To come out and qualify in the top five shows this team’s resilience and ability to just get the job done. We’ll have a look over the car and make sure everything’s okay, then do as many laps with all four drivers in night practice.”